MILLWALL manager Gary Rowett said he didn’t see the incident after Middlesbrough’s Neil Warnock claimed his defender Djed Spence suffered a broken nose in the first half of their Championship clash at The Den.
Spence and Murray Wallace were close together as the Lions left wing-back was making a forward run off the ball. The Boro right wing-back was tracking his opponent and stayed down after there appeared to be some kind of contact between the pair.
Spence needed treatment and was heard angrily asking Wallace, ‘what are you doing?’ as he walked to the touchline. Wallace seemed to offer a consoling hand but Spence shrugged it off.
There was no action taken by the officials and after the game Warnock said: “There were one or two incidents. When Djed broke his nose we weren’t happy with that, either.
“I said to Djed at half-time, he’d smashed his nose and he was really down – I think he was thinking about his good looks – I said the only answer is to win the game.”
Rowett was asked about the incident in the post-match press conference.
“There were some complaints with that, I think they’ve reported it after the game,” Rowett said. “I’ll be really honest, I haven’t seen the incident back. I thought it was a hand, but if it’s more then we’ll apologise for that.
“I certainly don’t think it was necessarily intentional, but I’d have to see it again. They were definitely complaining about that as a moment in the game. That’s fine.”
Asked if there could be some retrospective action taken against Wallace, Rowett replied. “I’ve got no idea.”
Meanwhile, the Lions boss admitted he had no problem with the decision to award a penalty to Boro late on for Jake Cooper’s foul on Ashley Fletcher. Fletcher made it 2-0 from 12 yards.
Rowett was unhappy the officials had missed a foul by Fletcher on Cooper that directly led to Boro’s opener.
Rowett added: “I also think the penalty probably was a penalty. Coops said he got the ball but it looked to me like a penalty. So I’ve got no complaints with that, either.”
Image: Millwall FC